Robot

For a robot to effectively help with chores it needs to be able to interact with an environment designed for human hands. So 1X has developed a new pair of artificial hands for its $20,000 NEO Home Robot featuring 25 degrees of freedom in the fingers, palms, and thumbs allowing them to skillfully complete tasks like assembling Lego.

Domestic robots are beginning to enter the household, but we still have our doubts about how many might require a little teleoperation. You have to feel for the poor teleoperators though.

Made by Weave Robotics, Issac 1 is a fuzzy, colorful home robot that promises to collect dirty clothes, fold and put away laundry, make beds, and tidy clutter. Shipping is slated for later this year, with a $250 deposit required. While its main tasks are automated, Weave says that, like its predecessor Isaac 0, Issac 1 will be teleoperated “when needed to guarantee we complete tasks.”

I’ve never enjoyed the regular maintenance of a fish tank, so I prefer the approach that Peter and Filip from the YouTube channel, CPSdrone, took. They spent three months engineering custom 3D-printed mini submarines that zoom around an aquarium like fish and autonomously dock themselves to wireless underwater chargers.

It may never come to the US, but LG announced its new HomeBot AI Objet Collection Roni robot vacuum in South Korea today. Its charging/cleaning dock can be hidden in kitchen cabinetry (requiring some reno) but there’s also a standalone dock that looks like a nondescript side table.

The company — which provides “Digit” humanoid robots to customers like Amazon and Toyota — is set to merge with acquisition company Churchill Capital Corp and list under the ticker symbol AGLT. Agility CEO Peggy Johnson says that going public will give the company an edge over its competitors “seeking to fill the labor gap.”

As part of giving its Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster attraction at Hollywood Studios a Muppets makeover (goodbye, Aerosmith) Walt Disney World imagineers created an audio-animatronic version of Scooter. To ensure the robot moved like a puppet they used a motion capture studio to record the actual Muppets’ movements performed by a puppeteer.

The robot vacuum company just launched its first robot lawnmower designed for US yards. The RockNeo Q110H combines RTK and VSLAM navigation and costs $1,299. It’s designed for small- to medium-sized yards and handles 45% slopes.

Its PowerDetect UV Reveal now comes in four colors — brown, green, blue, and ivory. The earthy neutral palettes feature metallic accents and look surprisingly good — for a robot. I’ve been testing the blue one, and I like how it blends in with my kitchen cabinets.

Robots have been an important part of Disney’s theme parks for decades, but instead of entertaining guests, this industrial arm is being used to carve intricate marble statues while human sculptors add fine details. The use of marble is more cost-effective, according to Disney, and better suited to surviving Florida weather.

The smart lighting company best known for its modular RGB lighting panels has been acquired by OneRobotics, the parent company of Switchbot. According to a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the purchase will take two years to complete.

Tech companies want to film you doing chores as training data for the next generation of household robots. If you’re not a fan, and don’t mind living in chaos, there’s always another way to participate.

Despite first being destined for Hyundai factories, the production version of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot looks no less capable than the one that debuted over two years ago. A new video demonstrates some impressive moves with a soccer ball, including a celebration dance worthy of any highlight reel.

Today, the company announced that on May 27th, it will reveal when its Cyber X bionic quad-track stair-climbing system will launch and, presumably, how much it will cost. The robot that can transport a robot vacuum up a flight of stairs will arrive alongside three new X60 Pro series robots, the most intriguing of which features Dreame’s first dual-joint bionic robotic arm that can extend a mop pad into tight corners and under furniture.

Bears are a serious problem in Japan, and Ohta has been fending them off for a decade with Monster Wolves — solar-powered animatronics with glowing eyes that make loud noises. But the company can’t keep up with demand. Farmers and rural workers are waiting up to three months for delivery.

Honor says it’ll launch in Q3, meaning July-September, though we’re still expecting it to be a China exclusive. The news was announced at the Cannes Film Festival, where Honor celebrated its partnership with professional cinema camera manufacturer Arri. The Robot Phone will be the first to include “core elements of Arri image science.”

The Narwal Freo Z10 Turbo uses a laser mapping system instead of a camera to navigate your home, but it includes a base station that empties dirt and sterilizes the mopping pads, and a mode that deep cleans carpets with boosted suction and multiple passes. It will be available on May 18th for $899.99 and discounted to $599.99 until the end of the month.

If the pointy-toothed grin of Labubu dolls wasn’t unsettling enough, a group of MIT grad students has turned 12 of them into a rolling robot capable of following you around. There’s more details about Labububot here, but the video should be all you need to keep you wide awake tonight.

Sean Hollister let a hacked robot lawnmower run him over in the name of journalism, but it took a Verge commenter to find the right language that really sets the stakes.

The company announced the latest version of its humanoid Atlast robot at CES 2026 with an immobile prototype on stage and CG animations. But despite the new Atlas being destined for Hyundai factories, a new video from Boston Dynamics reveals the robot is just as agile, flexible, and capable as previous versions.

Sam Altman considered a similar structure to Google’s Alphabet, which separates its core search business from ventures like Verily (health) and Waymo (self-driving cars), The Wall Street Journal reports. OpenAI has been cutting back on side quests ahead of a potential IPO and could revive spinout plans later on, the report says.

The deal for the company, Assured Robot Intelligence, closed on Friday, according to Bloomberg. The publication reported last year that Meta was starting to work on humanoid robots.

Ahead of The Mandalorian and Grogu hitting theaters on May 22nd, Hasbro has announced a new animatronic version of Grogu packed with motors, sensors, and the ability to shuffle around on its own two feet. CNET’s Bridget Carey visited Hasbro HQ for an early look at the toy including how it simulates using the Force.

Japan Airlines will start trialling Unitree robots for moving luggage and cargo in May, with the experiment running until 2028. The airline is also planning to use the robots for cleaning aircraft cabins and eventually hopes to deploy them permenantly to help cope amid Japan’s labor shortage and rising tourism.